Toothbrushes for cleaning teeth, with the bristle-carrying brushhead aligned with the handle, are commonly known objects. Though it is universally recognised that the most efficient way to clean the teeth is to move the brush up and down, presently available toothbrushes from the market do not facilitate this movement, the axis of the brushhead being in line with the axis of the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 611788 of Oct. 4, 1898 by Isaac N Lincoln disclosed a folding toothbrush, with a jointed handle, one part provided with bristles, and the other part consisting of a receptacle for tooth powder, a series of perforations extending longitudinally from either end of the receptacle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4033007 and 4370773 respectively dated Jul. 5, 1979 and Feb. 1, 1983 by Joseph Hadery disclosed a toothbrush with an upright, self-supporting handle having a diametrically enlarged hollow base of a size to receive and store a brushhead therein.
Australian Patent No. AU-A-58049/86 by Raymond Ernest and Stephen J Ginsberg dated Dec. 3, 1987 disclosed a modular oral hygiene system with a handle comprising generally parallel front and rear portions connected by a middle portion which forms an angle of about 30 to about 50 degrees with said front and rear portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5165135 and UK Patent No. 2224928 dated respectively Nov. 24, 1992 and Apr. 8, 1992 by Chan Boon Su disclosed a toothbrush comprising essentially: an elongate handle, an elongate bristle-carrying head on the distal end of the said handle, a suitable means of turning the brushing head about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the brushing head, and the longitudinal axis of the head forming an angle to the longitudinal axis of said handle. The subject of this disclosure is a toothbrush having one brushhead attached to each end of an elongate element, with each half of the element further comprising an outer portion and a holder portion integrally connected by a middle portion shaped like a goose-neck.
The longitudinal axis of the bristle-carrying brushhead is disposed at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the adjacent outer section of the element; and the plane containing the longitudinal axis of the outer section of the element is disposed at an angle to the plane containing the longitudinal axis of the holder section of the element. The first half of the element with an attached brushhead is the mirror-image of the second half of the element with an attached brushhead, and the element substantially assumes an extended "M" shape.